like no animal she had ever seen before. They splayed upon the ground and spread wings of multi-coloured skin to bask in the sun. They did not appear to eat at all.
Even more bizarre, were the horse-sized beasts with stilt-like legs, which selected a spot and drilled their legs into the ground. They stood for hours, hooting occasionally, before plucking their thin limbs out and wandering off. They seemed to like the soft soil around the city, and many came to stand there all day. Like the other alien beasts, their skins were patterned with many brilliant colours, making them appear unreal. None would allow Talsy to approach, and she observed them from a distance, marvelling at their weirdness. The horses left them alone, and many quit the area, as if afraid of the peculiar creatures.
Talsy wandered along the beach, humming a tuneless song, when a man walked out of the sea. She froze in disbelief, then gave a glad cry and ran towards him, soon tiring in the soft sand. The creature’s skin gleamed silver and translucent flaps joined his arms and legs like the wings of a ray. He turned to face her, but then marched back into the waves. Talsy shouted and tried to catch up with him, running into the surf. The waves drove her back, and her puny struggles made no headway against the sea's might.
The man dived into the waves with a flash of silver and vanished beneath them. Talsy stumbled back up the beach and sank down on the sand, tears of frustration stinging her eyes. The strange man was clearly an ocean creature, and might be able to find Chanter, if she could only tell him of the Mujar's plight. She sat on the beach until dusk, her heart aching with the loneliness of her vigil and the pain of her loss.
The next day, the silver man reappeared, but this time she just sat and watched him roam the beach. He wandered up and down the beach, foraged in the sand and ate whatever it was he found, but stayed away from her. Two days later, he appeared again, and she observed him with growing despair, the hope that he might come close enough to talk to fading as he stayed out of earshot. The following day he returned, and she approached him again, this time at a sedate pace, so as not to alarm him, but he slipped into the sea before she could get close enough to speak to him.
The next night, as she sat before the cave staring out at the calm, moon-silvered sea, a flash of movement in the water caught her attention. A winged man-shape swam along the shore, making the ocean's sparkling black surface seem magical and inviting. The man always escaped into the wild sea, but now the ocean's tranquillity and his proximity offered a rare opportunity to approach him in his element. Perhaps then he would not be so afraid of her.
Talsy rose and marched down the beach, determined to communicate her need to this creature, who might be able to help Chanter. The ocean welcomed her into its cold embrace, and the waves pulled her in and sucked her out to sea. She swam towards the silver man, trying to keep him in sight while she fought her dread of the black depths below. He turned towards her, probably alerted by her splashing, but, as she opened her mouth to call out to him, he dived. She trod water, waiting for him to surface again.
Several minutes passed, and her legs grew weary. Turning back to the shore, she swam towards it, surprised at how far she was from the beach. It receded despite her swift strokes, and she shivered as she realised that a powerful undertow washed her away from it. She increased her efforts, but, no matter how hard she swam, her futile exertion merely sapped her strength, and despair chilled her.
Gasping with fear and fatigue, she forced her aching legs to kick, coughing as water splashed into her mouth. The pale strip of beach dwindled to a faint line, and the waves grew bigger as she encountered the deep ocean swells. With the last of her strength, she redoubled her efforts, knowing that if she was swept any further away, she would never make it back. She cursed herself for swimming out into the ocean as if it was no more dangerous than a mill pond. Her limbs grew numb with cold and tiredness, and waves washed over her face.
Chill hands gripped her and pulled her back to the surface, allowing her to gasp air. Her unknown rescuer towed her towards the beach with the ease of a fish, unhindered by the strong current that had defeated her. She tried to grab hold of her saviour, her hands encountering fragile wings of soft skin that made her recoil with a snort of shock. The shore approached at an amazing speed, the sea foaming around her with the swiftness of her travel, and soon her rubbery legs touched sand. The sea man dragged her onto the beach, his long webbed fingers gripping her sodden jacket. Talsy sobbed with relief and gratitude, wiping stinging brine from her eyes as she peered at him in the moonlight.
A jagged, knife-thin ridge of bone ran over his skull in a short crest, ending in a pair of tiny nostrils just above a gash of a mouth, and deep-set green eyes glowed on either side of it. His ears were flat areas of skin, designed for hearing underwater, and parallel gill slits, like a shark's, ran along his jawline. The moonlight gleamed on his smooth silver skin and shone through the translucent wings that joined his wrists to his ankles.
The sea man carried her up the beach and dumped her on the dry sand, then turned to leave. Talsy made a grab for him and caught hold of a slippery wing. He paused and tried to pry her fingers free.
'Don't go!' she cried. 'Wait, I need your help!'
He cocked his head and stared her, nictitating membranes flicking across his round eyes.
'He's in the sea, somewhere out there! I need you to find him!'
The man cocked his head the other way. He clearly did not understand her, but was merely entranced by her voice.
Talsy strengthened her grip on his fin. 'He's Mujar! Out there! In the sea!'
He stiffened at the name, his eyes becoming intent.
Talsy grasped at the straw of hope. 'Mujar! Out there!' She pointed at the sea, and the silver man's head turned to follow her finger. She tried to shake him, desperate to get through, but her fingers slipped from the translucent webbing, and she lunged at him to renew her hold. He slipped away, pausing out of reach.
'Mujar! Mujar!' She pointed at the sea, and he studied her. He mimicked her gesture, and she nodded. 'Mujar!'
Talsy crawled towards the water, but he returned to pull her back and push her down, adroitly avoiding her clutching hands. His meaning was clear. He did not want her in the sea, but it could have been because her corpse would foul the water, not because he was concerned for her life. She gave up and pointed at the moon-silvered waves, repeating, 'Mujar.'
The silver-skinned sea man turned away, walked down to the sea and dived in with hardly a ripple. Talsy relaxed, grateful to be alive, but too tired to walk to the cave and dry herself. Fortunately, the night was warm and still, and her exertions had banished the cold. After the ocean's biting chill, the beach seemed comfortable. Resolving to rest until some strength seeped back into her leaden limbs, she closed her eyes.
A crab crawling over her leg woke Talsy in the morning, and she walked to the cave, where she nibbled cold potato and drank water to wash away the sour taste of salt.
Chanter's awareness was little more than a numb sensation. Before, he had rolled around on a sandy seabed, and the currents had played with him, washing him this way and that. Now he had become wedged into a rock shelf. The sea ran past him in gentle currents, and seaweed brushed his skin. He vaguely remembered the soft thud of hooves on sand, muted by the water. Now only the currents whispered to him. The sea's song reached him in warped, muted dirges, mixed with skirls of sound that prickled his dull mind. Fish brushed against him, and he was aware that he was being incorporated into the reef, growing attached to it as it made him a part of it. The gold around his neck blocked the Powers and reduced the world to a blurred, senseless muddle.
Time had no meaning, no way of being measured. He might have been here for a day, a month or a year, he had no idea. Chanter remembered the pain of being thrown into the sea so badly injured. The rush of Shissar's healing, so sudden and strong, had transcended even the gold's muting to lash him into a screaming frenzy of agony. That, too, was gone now, however, like his powers, like the world of air, and Talsy. None of that concerned him anymore. He knew only the gentle tug of water and the soft sea sounds. At least it was probably better than a Pit.
Talsy sat at the cave mouth and stared out across the ocean. Days had passed since the silver sea man had vanished back into the water. She had not seen him roaming the beach or playing in the waves since then. Was he searching for Chanter? Would he find him in the vast expanse of ocean? The Mujar might have been washed far away by now, up or down the coast, depending on the current and how far out he was. Had the sea man understood her? Did he even care?
Tiny fish jumped in the shallows in waves of silver sparkles. The thought of cooked fish made her mouth water, but she had nothing with which to catch them. She threw away the piece of potato she had been nibbling, and a gull swooped down to snatch it and wing away, pursued by others. On the rocks below the cave, she used her knife to pry open shells and scooped out the salty meat. The shells that covered the rocks at low tide were
